Risk and resiliency to tobacco smoking are examined in a US population-based, longitudinal survey to understand why racial and ethnic minorities are more resilient to smoking initiation in adolescence, and yet by midlife, they report higher risk to smoking and lower rates of cessation. The relationship between smoking and social roles is considered during the transition from adolescence into adulthood, and through the course of midlife, to determine whether this relationship is confounded by different timing and sequencing of adult socials. Past research documents that the age pattern of risk and resilience to smoking varies for people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as for men and women. Past research also documents that the timing and sequencing of social roles vary by race, ethnicity and gender. No known research has examined the relationship between the age patterns of social roles and the age patterns of smoking, or related these to racial/ethnic and gender differences. Over twenty years of data from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse sponsored supplements to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979) will be employed to model the interdependent processes of smoking and social role transitions with dynamic, random effects hazard regression. This study will contribute to the achievement of Healthy People 2010 by contextualizing the determinants and consequences of smoking and guiding public health practitioners to anticipate the needs of current and emerging vulnerable populations.